On January 24, the Lakers played against the Suns today, and the Clippers played against the Nuggets.

But I have to say that there will be more or less gaps in everything.

Finley's performance today is obviously better, but it may also be that the Nuggets are too bad, the new No. 4, who became the starting small forward of the Clippers in a blink of an eye, cut 20 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals for the new club in the first game.

Jones's performance is not bad, the Lakers are also lightly beating the Suns, the starting point guard who has become the Lakers' new No. 6 in a blink of an eye, played 30 minutes today, and scored 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. This report card is not bad, at least the Lakers fans have not seen any decline in the strength of their team, Jones is like playing with the team for several years, basically seamless.

Zhang Wei knew that their defense had declined, but the single defense ability was indeed not affected, and what was really affected was the team's tacit understanding.

His system shows that the Lakers' chemistry dropped to 85 after the trade, compared to 95 before the trade. But this change can only be seen against a strong team, and the Suns have not been able to force the Lakers' true strength to create a real threat.

Moreover, even in the face of a strong team, Zhang Fu feels that this impact will not be a big problem, just a change in one position has a limited impact, and at most in two or three months, they can make up for the tacit understanding again. Besides, even if the chemistry of 85 is now, it is better than half of the teams, and it is still more difficult to beat the Lakers now.

In January, the Lakers still have their last two games to play, against the Nets and the Timberwolves, although both opponents have caused a lot of trouble for the Lakers, but with Zhang Mao's dominance at key moments, as well as the team's overall strength lead, the Lakers have finally survived the difficulties.

But in these two games, it can also be seen that the Lakers after the streak do not seem to be so dominant, on the one hand, it is the discomfort caused by the trade, but it should be more about the rapid progress of other teams.

This is the so-called "catfish effect", the Lakers' dominance has forced more potential of these opponents, and it has also prompted the entire league to speed up the pace of progress, and the result is that even O'Neal is not as lazy as before, even if the Zen master does not force him, the team can see that O'Neal has begun to pay attention to physical training and free throws, because to beat the Lakers and Zhang Mao, he can't have too obvious shortcomings.

"With 41 wins and 1 loss, the Lakers set a new record again!"

Dragonborn Sports once again reported on the Lakers' record after they finished all of their games in January, and the 41-1 record is indeed the best halfway record in NBA history, and they almost became the team that lost only one game in the first half.

Needless to say, Zhang Mao once again won the "Player of the Month" award in January, and someone in the league has proposed to change the "Best of the Month" to the "Koala Award", please don't ask why?

In February, the NBA will celebrate its annual All-Star Weekend, a celebration that most players want to participate in.

The "All-Star Weekend" will be held on February 5-7, and the Lakers still have two games to play before that, and even if they lose all, it is the best half-way record in history, and Zhang Fu has unwittingly created a new myth.

This "All-Star Weekend" was held in New York, and Zhang Wei had already turned down the invitations to the "Three-Point Contest" and "Slam Dunk Contest", even though Jordan had accepted the invitation to participate in this year's "Slam Dunk Contest" and "Three-Point Contest", but he didn't say that he was going too?

Zhang Yu felt that he didn't need to take action to teach such an old man, those young people must have been gearing up early in the morning, and at this moment, I don't know how many people want to go to the well.

Of course, Jordan himself doesn't want to humiliate himself, especially when participating in a project like the "Slam Dunk Contest" is really looking for on his own!

But there is no way, he can't do anything that he doesn't believe in words, since he has gambled, he has to be willing to gamble and lose, so he has to bear the consequences of losing the gambling by pinching his nose.

Zhang Yu thinks about it and feels very sorry for the old man, he has to participate in the "Slam Dunk Contest" at such an old age, he is really a little excited to think about it, I don't know what His Majesty the "Flying Man" is going to perform this time?

The league is bad enough, after Zhang Fu just turned down the invitation to the "Slam Dunk Contest", he received an invitation from the league to serve as a judge the next day, of course this Zhang Fu will not refuse.

But don't think that Zhang Wei is going to deliberately make things difficult for Jordan, he won't do this kind of thing, and he has taken advantage of it enough, this time he is really ready to be a good person. Besides, how could he do such an ungraceful thing, do you really think he will only pretend to be forced?

At this time, there is another thing that the majority of fans are concerned about, and that is the All-Star starting lineup in the East and West......

The final stage of the New York All-Star voting has already been released, and the top six rankings are not much different from before, but Kidd finally failed to top Payton and only came in seventh.

Zhang Zhu felt that the league must have intervened, and Kidd lost badly in that game, but the fans who voted would not care so much, so it would not have much impact on Kidd's votes.

However, it doesn't make a difference, a team has two starting guards, and this year's Western Stars head coach is Harris, Kidd doesn't have to worry about missing out on the All-Star.

The Lakers had the best record in the first half of the season last year, but because one coach couldn't serve as an All-Star head coach in a row, the Western Stars head coach at that time was SuperSonics coach George Carr, who had the second-best record in the West.

This year, Harris can naturally be the coach of the Western Stars again, so when it came to selecting substitutes, Jones and Mutombo naturally entered the bench lineup, and Finley said that he was very upset.

1998 All-Star Ballot Final Ranking: 1. Zhang Fu 3419233 votes; 2. Michael Jordan 1251758 votes; 3. Grant Hill 1147937 votes; 4. Shaquille O'Neal 1106452 votes; 5. Dekembe Mutombo 863647 votes; 6. Gary Payton 814983 vote.

Zhang's final ballot was a bit excessive, with 3.4 million votes allowing him to break his own NBA All-Star voting record again, which was the first time in NBA history that someone exceeded 3 million votes, and it was in the era when there was no online voting.

According to the coalition's ballot counting department, about 40 percent of Zhang's 3.4 million votes came from outside North America.

That is to say, he received about 1.3 million overseas votes this year, which alone is more than all the votes of Jordan, who came in second place combined, which shows the extent of his global influence.

Zhang Zhu now has such a huge global influence, and his sassy words are indispensable, after all, half of the world's buzzwords and mantras are created by him, plus ICQ pops up a window for you from time to time, it is really true that people who don't watch basketball know Zhang Fu's name.

Eastern starting lineup –

Centre-forward: Alonzo Mourning.

Power forward: Sean Kemp.

Small forward: Grant Hill.

Shooting guard: Michael Jordan.

Point guard: Tim Hardaway.

Western starting lineup –

Center: Shaquille O'Neal.

Power forward: Karl Malone.

Small forward: Zhang Mao.

Shooting guard: Gary Payton.

Point guard: Jason Kidd.

There are some stars in the East and West who missed the All-Star Games due to injuries, so the final starting and bench lineups are different from what fans expected, but this is also the case every year that All-Stars are always inevitable.

The head coach of the Western Stars is Del Harris, and the head coach of the Eastern Stars is Don Nelson, and the bench lineup selected by the two has also been determined-

Eastern Stars Bench Lineup -

Center: Rick Schmitz.

Forwards: Glenn Rice, Kenny Barkley, Jason Williams.

Defenders: Allen Iverson, Reggie Miller, Steve Smith.

Western Stars Bench Lineup –

Centre-forwards: David Robinson, Dicambe Mutombo.

Forwards: Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett.

Defenders: Mitch Richmond, John Stockton, Eddie Jones.

After the All-Star bench list was released, some people were naturally happy and some worried.

Eddie Jones was a shit lucky, he was traded to the Lakers a few days before Harris submitted his bench list, and as a result, he became a Western Conference bench and changed from Finley to Jones.

Finley was nervous, of course, but that's the reality, how could Harris pick a player from another team to be an All-Star, and what would Jones think at that time?

Kobe Bryant also said that he was very sorry, but he didn't have much to do with the All-Stars in this time and space, and he didn't have much hope for himself.

If Iverson hadn't been reimbursed because of Hardaway, he would have also failed to be an All-Star, and he wouldn't even be able to mix up a substitute, would Kobe, a sophomore rookie who averaged 13+3+3 per game, still want to be an All-Star?

This season is still a situation where the West is strong and the East is weak, and the strength of the Western Star Team is also above the Eastern Star Team.

Under the control of the league, the record of the Western Division vs. the Eastern Division is there, the 61% win rate of the Western team VS the Western team is far ahead, and the results of the top eight on both sides are even more different, most fans still think that this year will be the Western Star team winning, and AMVP eighty percent is still the trophy of the koala baby.

Zhang Wei doesn't care about this kind of honor anymore, he has won the AMVP three times, and he is the first player in history to win the AMVP three times in a row, this kind of icing on the cake, he really doesn't care now.

So, this year he decided to really help O'Neal get an AMVP, no longer just last year's words, this time he really won't fight again.

"I want to think of this All-Star Weekend as a tour." Before the game against the Bulls, Zhang mentioned the All-Star trip, "You know, I've been training in Los Angeles in the summer, and I haven't traveled in the past few years, so I have to take advantage of this opportunity to rest. ”

These words are still a bit of a pretense, and it is estimated that this has become his instinct.

The first game in February is the Lakers at home against the Bulls, which is also the last meeting between the two teams in the regular season, and the next time they meet can only be in the Finals.

'We haven't been in great form lately, so of course we could lose tonight.'

Against the Bulls today, Zhang Wei is not sure of winning in his heart, and if Jones can't keep up with the team's rhythm, then he can't say what the result will be.

But he forgot that the Bulls also made a trade not long ago, and they traded for their second leader, which is much more than the Lakers trading for a role player.

The Bulls have lost two games since the trade, which is the after-effect of surgery on the core skeleton.

Hill's side will take much longer to integrate into the Bulls than Jones, and the Bulls only have 80 chemistry at this time, and the Lakers have the advantage in this regard.

Jordan is even less confident about beating the Lakers on the road at the moment, because his partner with Hill is not tacit, especially the new partner relies on the ball more than him, and has no three-point shooting ability, compared to Pippen's three-point shooting rate of nearly 40% this year, Hill is not even afraid to shoot, because he really does not have three-point shooting ability at all.

What Zhang Wei doesn't understand the most is this, the importance of the three-point shot has been obvious in previous years, it can be said that when the Rockets won two consecutive championships, the three-point shot became an important attribute that determines success or failure. Moreover, in order to promote the three-point shot in the league in those two years, the three-point line was even shortened, which shows the importance of this technology, and most players included the three-point shot into their essential skills in those two years.

After the implementation of new rules in the NBA this year, it has suddenly become more difficult for players who don't have three-pointers and only rely on breakthroughs to make a difference, because opponents can trap and help you defend anytime and anywhere, and even set up traps to target you.

At this time, unless you have the speed of Iverson or the "flying squirrel" before the injury, it is easy to fall into the quagmire once you are targeted.

Hill's explosiveness and speed are top-notch, but compared to small point guards, he is not a bug-like existence, and only needs an ordinary double bag to make him uncomfortable, and it will be even more difficult for him to make a difference against a team with a superior defensive system, but the star of this gentleman still hasn't trained his three-point ability, why is that?

"This ...... Could it be because of laziness? ”

Zhang Qi rarely sees negative news about Hill, but for the situation that this guy can't practice three-point shooting for four years, he thinks about it, and there is only one explanation.

Jordan and Pippen's three-point shots can be used to complain during the Bulls dynasty, but people began to practice three-point shots before the new rules were released, and after the new rules were released, they were even more desperate to train three-point shots.

However, Zhang Qian has never heard the news that Hill went to practice three-point shooting, and Hill's progress every year since he entered the league has been outrageously small, and he has barely made much significant progress in the past four years, so the word "lazy" can almost be pressed on him.

This is indeed a slot, any player above the All-Star level, the first three years of improvement is a step a year, and most of the scores, rebounds, assists, shooting percentage and other data have risen across the board, and there are few cases like Hill, except for the second year in rebounds and assists, and then it has been stagnant.

Take Kobe Bryant as an example, this year has improved comprehensively compared to last year, and Garnett and others are a big step every year, and even Kidd has begun to improve year after year after he arrived with the Lakers.

But Hill has been stuck in the 20+9+7 data in the past three years, especially the scoring data has not improved significantly, which has to make people suspect that he is not working so hard.

Today, the Lakers' defense is to let Hill attack outside the three-point line, but he has accumulated strong defensive strength in the mid-range, and the basket is all in charge of Uncle Mu.

Jordan and Hill's mid-distance are the existence that has to be guarded, of course, the Lakers must defend in the middle, today they should be in the middle of the joint defense, as long as the basketball does not enter this threat, then each defense has its own, everyone has their own ability.

In this game, Jones's performance against Jordan made the Lakers very satisfied, although as long as the "Flyer" hit him with his back, his teammates could give assistance after Jordan's back, Zhang Qian would completely let go of Hill at this time, and other players would be ready to help defend Hill's breakthrough at any time.

At this time, if Hill can shoot three points from the outside, even if he only has a shooting rate of more than 30%, Zhang Qi will never dare to wrap Jordan casually.

But this season, Hill averaged just 0.4 three-pointers per game and shot 18 percent from the field.

That is to say, his three-point shots are basically helpless shots after the offensive time is almost up, and he usually doesn't shoot three-pointers at all.

The Lakers got the weakness of Hill's inability to shoot three points today, and kept splitting forces to wrap Jordan and Barkley, and the result was that the Bulls returned to the state of being dominated by Mutombo under the basket last year, and a "mountain of Africa" that can reassure the air defense + help defense restricted area is enough to reduce Jordan and Hill's breakthrough efficiency by half, and even Barkley is not afraid to shoot in the paint area.

Neither Zhang Zhu nor Harris expected that it would be just a weakness that would lead to a situation where the Bulls lost everything.

The Lakers almost froze Jordan in the first half, Jones's single defense + Zhang Zhu's co-defense is more difficult to deal with than before the trade, although the confrontation ability is not as good as Finley, but Jones's ability to follow and defend the ball is better, he can entangle Jordan to make it difficult to break through, not to mention that there is an Uncle Mu under the basket who is ready to shake his fingers at any time, it is too difficult for Jordan to break through such a defense.

Hill can't break through this limit, at this time he can only play his ability to pass and respond, but unfortunately the Lakers' defense is extremely targeted, even if Hill can pass a few beautiful assists, but it doesn't help the overall situation.

The Bulls' offense was surprisingly passive, but the defense wasn't affected too much.

It's a pity that today is the home court of the Lakers, Zhang Zhu, Jones, Kidd, and Starks all have a good hand, and the Lakers' outside attack group is in excellent condition, which makes the Bulls' defense also become careless, and finally fell into an embarrassing situation where both offensive and defensive ends are blown up.

The Lakers took a 59-42 lead in the first half, and the Bulls also didn't give the Bulls a chance in the second half.

In the third quarter, the Lakers seized the opportunity to play a 12:2 attack wave that made the Bulls desperate, expanding the difference to 25 points in one fell swoop, and directly taking away the suspense.

Zhang Wei didn't expect that this game would only take three quarters to split the winner, and now who dares to say that the Lakers' dominance has declined?

Lakers fans even shouted the slogan "75 wins" in garbage time in the final quarter, which was clearly the goal they set for the Lakers, as the Lakers don't have a regular season record in-house, and they no longer pursue this record.

But fans still want their team to go further, and with the current momentum, the Lakers can still lose seven or eight games in the second half of the schedule?

With a win over the Bulls today, the Lakers' record will come to 42-1, with 39 games to play, and even if they lose one of the ten games, they will be able to get 77 wins. The Lakers' chances of winning 75+ games this year are really high.

"I saw it, I heard it, and although we didn't think about 75 wins, since the fans wanted us to break the record, we should make this a new goal for the regular season."

Zhang Mao's answer at the post-game press conference brought tears to the eyes of the Bulls players, when did it become so childish to win 75+ games? Is he pretending?